I also observe that the universe is pretty dark, cold, and mostly empty, and I still have lights, a heating system, and furniture.

At least for now you do. But just wait for the new austerity measures that are just around the corner.

I'll fight for my couch to the death!OTOH, I'm using energy saving bulbs* since approximately 1995, so they don't get me there ;)

* Since yesterday, 60-watt bulbs are banned in all countries of the European union (100-watt and 75-watt bulbs were already banned).

--------------"Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...]Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner

* Since yesterday, 60-watt bulbs are banned in all countries of the European union (100-watt and 75-watt bulbs were already banned).

ZOMG SOCIALISM!!!!!!!!

Energy saving bulbs are wicked and evil and do not represent proper/Jesus'/American/British/Whatever bulbs that have been around forever since Adam made them in the Garden of Eden and these new bulbs give you cancer and are due to that fake global warming stuff which is a communist, atheist, gay, leftie, black, tree hugger plot made to take money from rich, white people (who are the best at everything ever and deserve to be by divine/biological/both right) and you can't tell me that's not true because old bulbs give better light and it's not entirely subjective at all oh no it's not.

And they lower house prices and encourage dirty dirty immigrants who are now white, but speak funny, which makes us confused because we can't call them pakis.

* Since yesterday, 60-watt bulbs are banned in all countries of the European union (100-watt and 75-watt bulbs were already banned).

ZOMG SOCIALISM!!!!!!!!

Energy saving bulbs are wicked and evil and do not represent proper/Jesus'/American/British/Whatever bulbs that have been around forever since Adam made them in the Garden of Eden and these new bulbs give you cancer and are due to that fake global warming stuff which is a communist, atheist, gay, leftie, black, tree hugger plot made to take money from rich, white people (who are the best at everything ever and deserve to be by divine/biological/both right) and you can't tell me that's not true because old bulbs give better light and it's not entirely subjective at all oh no it's not.

And they lower house prices and encourage dirty dirty immigrants who are now white, but speak funny, which makes us confused because we can't call them pakis.

[/Daily Mail and/or my mother]

Louis

ETA: How did I do?

Pretty good, but you forgot that it's a conspiracy by Osram and Philipps to monopolise the market*, that energy saving bulbs are actually WORSE for the environment, and that they lead to depression.

ETA: * which nicely fits in with the communist etc. plot to take money from the rich.

--------------"Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...]Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner

* Since yesterday, 60-watt bulbs are banned in all countries of the European union (100-watt and 75-watt bulbs were already banned).

ZOMG SOCIALISM!!!!!!!!

Energy saving bulbs are wicked and evil and do not represent proper/Jesus'/American/British/Whatever bulbs that have been around forever since Adam made them in the Garden of Eden and these new bulbs give you cancer and are due to that fake global warming stuff which is a communist, atheist, gay, leftie, black, tree hugger plot made to take money from rich, white people (who are the best at everything ever and deserve to be by divine/biological/both right) and you can't tell me that's not true because old bulbs give better light and it's not entirely subjective at all oh no it's not.

And they lower house prices and encourage dirty dirty immigrants who are now white, but speak funny, which makes us confused because we can't call them pakis.

[/Daily Mail and/or my mother]

Louis

ETA: How did I do?

Pretty good, but you forgot that it's a conspiracy by Osram and Philipps to monopolise the market, that energy saving bulbs are actually WORSE for the environment, and that they lead to depression.

Don't forget the mercury... won't someone think of the egrets?

--------------Ignored by those who can't provide evidence for their claims.

The mercury, conspiracy and worse for the environment? How could forget those?

I'm getting old. BAH!!

Louis

There's *always* a conspiracy, and if they THEY claim otherwise, it's a cover-up. If you claim otherwise, you're either a naive dupe or in THEIR pockets. No evidence for a conspiracy only shows how deep-reaching THEIR influence is. And if the conspiracy theory only works if governments and scientists all over the world are together in it, that only means that you should buy 10 000 light bulbs, a diesel generator, a plywood shack somewhere in the woods, and a gun if you live in the US (I actually read that in a comment...) or that you should buy 10 000 light bulbs, leave all your lights on at all times (that'll show Them!)*, and get really angry in the pub, if you live in Germany. In the UK, you'll probably become Lord Monckton.

* I read that one, too.

--------------"Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...]Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner

However, your point is interesting. It seems you are suggesting that the ID argument is:

“known non-design alternatives for life are wrong therefore life was designed”

I think this is a good summary of the ID argument but do you really support it? I have spent hours hearing from people on the ID side protesting that this is not the case. They claim there is positive evidence for design as well as evidence against “Darwinism”.

This lovely, fresh-faced smiling young miss (I gather she was precisely 18 at the time of this picture)

Of course it is not his fault:

Quote

There is now a rising flood of free -- much of it amateur [or pseudo-amateur] -- Internet pornography, just a simple Google search away. All you have to do is make a simple mistake in a search and the links to the most graphic, "hard core" porn sites will start to come up.

Thus, we are being lured into a world of graphical, aural and verbal stimulation, designed to pull us into an addiction to not only watching but participating in anything-goes action, and to eventually join the fun by (a) taking and posting public pictures of your "equipment" or adventures, or even (b) advertising in pop-ups on the same sites.

--------------"[...] the type of information we find in living systems is beyond the creative means of purely material processes [...] Who or what is such an ultimate source of information? [...] from a theistic perspective, such an information source would presumably have to be God."

DeNews quotes Mark Steyn getting all nostalgic about the movie Apollo 13. She tries to smear current thinking in cosmology by linking it to the fiction of the upcoming Apollo 18.

Quote

Now, some fear NASA will end up in tune with crackpot cosmologies. You know, “We are living in a giant hologram, or a giant trailer filled with poop, or whatever Stephen Hawking says we are living in” because he is The Smartest Man in the WorldTM, and these days genius beats exploration as a source of knowledge.

Obviously, it's much better to rely on a book filled with stories of talking snakes or sticks that turn into snakes or voices speaking out of burning bushes or the parting of seas or people turned into pillars of salt for just looking the wrong way. Let's keep things real here, people.

There is now a rising flood of free -- much of it amateur [or pseudo-amateur] -- Internet pornography, just a simple Google search away. All you have to do is make a simple mistake in a search and the links to the most graphic, "hard core" porn sites will start to come up.

Well, sure. I don't know how many times I've tried to Google "Basic Astrophysics" and ended up at "Back Door Babes". Happens all the time. Even when my "safe search" filter is on, right Gorgo?

--------------"But it's disturbing to think someone actually thinks creationism -- having put it's hand on the hot stove every day for the last 400 years -- will get a different result tomorrow." -- midwifetoad

There is now a rising flood of free -- much of it amateur [or pseudo-amateur] -- Internet pornography, just a simple Google search away. All you have to do is make a simple mistake in a search and the links to the most graphic, "hard core" porn sites will start to come up.

Well, sure. I don't know how many times I've tried to Google "Basic Astrophysics" and ended up at "Back Door Babes". Happens all the time. Even when my "safe search" filter is on, right Gorgo?

Happens to me too when I search "back door babe", that was that adorable moment in the movie Babe, when Babe the piglet tries to get into the farmer's house through the backdoor.

I don't regret the searches, though. It seems Gordo* has something against sex. How surprising...

*I am really reluctant about that nick. For me Gordo has always been Leroy Gordon Cooper, a hero of mine, even if he went crazy pants in his later years.

--------------"Hail is made out of water? Are you really that stupid?" Joe G

"I have a better suggestion, Kris. How about a game of hide and go fuck yourself instead." Louis

"The reason people use a crucifix against vampires is that vampires are allergic to bullshit" Richard Pryor

There is now a rising flood of free -- much of it amateur [or pseudo-amateur] -- Internet pornography, just a simple Google search away. All you have to do is make a simple mistake in a search and the links to the most graphic, "hard core" porn sites will start to come up.

Well, sure. I don't know how many times I've tried to Google "Basic Astrophysics" and ended up at "Back Door Babes". Happens all the time. Even when my "safe search" filter is on, right Gorgo?

Happens to me too when I search "back door babe", that was that adorable moment in the movie Babe, when Babe the piglet tries to get into the farmer's house through the backdoor.

I don't regret the searches, though. It seems Gordo* has something against sex. How surprising...

*I am really reluctant about that nick. For me Gordo has always been Leroy Gordon Cooper, a hero of mine, even if he went crazy pants in his later years.

Also make sure you spell "Toyota" correctly and I don't suggest "whitehouse.com"

--------------Ignored by those who can't provide evidence for their claims.

Also make sure you spell "Toyota" correctly and I don't suggest "whitehouse.com"

Whitehouse.com is down now, but Wiki says this: "In 2004 Dan Parisi decided to sell the domain, mainly because of his son who would be in kindergarten the next year. At this point he was making US$1 million annually from the site alone."

Who was it who said, "I'm not in politics for my health?"

--------------Like every other academic field, philosophy of religion has its share of hacks and mediocrities. Edward Feser

--------------"[...] the type of information we find in living systems is beyond the creative means of purely material processes [...] Who or what is such an ultimate source of information? [...] from a theistic perspective, such an information source would presumably have to be God."

In “Genetics Paper Retracted: Due to statistical errors, a Science paper claiming that mutation is responsible for genetic variation is retracted” (The Scientist September 2, 2011), Jessica P. Johnson reports,

Quote

A May 2010 Science paper showing that the most genetically fit cow-pea weevils have fewer deleterious genetic mutations in their genomes than their less fit counterparts was retracted yesterday (September 1) by the authors because of flaws in their statistical analysis.

Quote

The results apparently supported the hypothesis that individuals with the fewest bad mutations will produce the most fit offspring.

Quote

The revised data analysis, which shows little effect on fitness due to mutation, suggests that some other mechanism may instead be responsible for maintaining genetic variation in weevil populations.

Wonder what?

Must have been the designer at work.

--------------"[...] the type of information we find in living systems is beyond the creative means of purely material processes [...] Who or what is such an ultimate source of information? [...] from a theistic perspective, such an information source would presumably have to be God."

BTW, it is good to know that due to their moral superiority decent behaviour like retracting errornous papers is so common among ID scientists.

--------------"[...] the type of information we find in living systems is beyond the creative means of purely material processes [...] Who or what is such an ultimate source of information? [...] from a theistic perspective, such an information source would presumably have to be God."

They might want to check into what’s happening to students too. They should see Expelled as well.

Today’s universities are a living antithesis of everything North American nations were founded for.

Ah, yes. There was that notorious case of the professor at some Southern Baptist seminary who wrote something that was felt to be at odds with orthodox opinion at the institution. He was invited to 'clarify' his position or look for another job.